Last Night (21 page)

"
Great parrot," Vanessa said, but she wasn
'
t looking at Puni. She tilted her head slightly, sending a silky fall of blonde hair across her cheek, and treated him to another of her irresistible smiles.

He managed to smile back, and, incredibly, her smile widened.

18

"
R
ob," Dana said as they stood on the curb outside her house watching Garth drive away, "do you think we made a mistake calling Garth? He seems a little strange.
"

"
Your sister affects men that way." He gave her a half smile and a wink.
"
Some of us are immune.
"

A hot flush raced up her neck to her cheeks, and Dana blessed the darkness. She was embarrassed at her overreacting, her jealousy. Her sister was only t
rying to protect her. And Rob…
well, he did seem truly interested in her.

The neighborhood was dark except for the streetlight at the corner half-hidden by a coconut palm. Somewhere a dog barked; the sound carried through the tropical night along with the sweet scent of plumeria. They were alone now, really alone. It filled her with a strange inner excitement that almost frightened her.

"I
'
ve been thinking about what you said,
"
she told him as he draped his arm around her shoulders and
they began walking up the driveway to her house.
"
You think I choose men I can dominate, don
'
t you?
"

"
Do you?
"

"
I
'
m not sure. It isn
'
t a conscious decision.
"

He halted and drew her closer.
"
When you're traumatized the way you were, the mind calls on all its defense mechanisms. Subconsciously you
'
ve selected only men who make you feel safe—those you can control.
"

"Let me think about it a little more,
"
she said. The past was so ugly that Dana had deliberately blocked it from her thoughts. But you couldn't really escape anything that traumatic. It was there, a ghostlike presence, hovering in the shadows of her mind. If she was going to have a relationship with Rob, she
'
d have to deal with her own private demons. It could wait though; too much was at stake to indulge in self-analysis. She couldn
'
t get on with her life until the blackmailer was caught.

"
Do you think Big Daddy will show up here?
"
she asked. No matter what Rob
'
s theory was, she still believed Coltrane was the blackmailer. Nothing else made sense.

They began walking toward the house again, and Rob held up the small duffel that contained the incriminating videos he
'
d taken from Big Daddy
'
s suite.
"
As soon as it
'
s light I
'
m hiding these. They
'
re Vanessa
'
s insurance. When Coltrane shows up—and believe me, he will—he
'
ll want Vanessa and Jason back. That
'
s when we hit him with the tapes.
"

"Why Vanessa? Won
'
t he settle for Jason?"

Rob stopped again, his free arm still around her. "I found more than just a video camera monitoring station in his suite. Coltrane
'
s sick. Obsessed.
"

She waited, fear coiling inside her stomach at his words and his concerned expression. They hadn
'
t been able to talk during the flight over.

"There are cameras in the main house and in some of the cottages, but most of them are in Vanessa
'
s house. He watches every move she makes.
"

"That
'
s psychotic.
"
Her heart shot up to her throat and lodged there. She couldn
'
t imagine someone watching every move she made—day after day after day. An even more disgusting thought hit her. "There
'
s a television in her bathroom—
"

"Right. Big Daddy has an astonishing number of tapes of Vanessa; many of them would be considered pornographic.
"

"She
'
d die if she knew,
"
Dana said.

"Too much was going on there for her not to have at least suspected.
"

"Maybe,
"
Dana admitted. Once she
'
d been so close to her sister, but living with the Coltranes had put an invisible barrier between them. Perhaps the divorce would change things and they
'
d be close again.

She wasn
'
t close to anyone, Dana realized, except Lillian Hurley. Her neighbor was so much older that it put a certain distance between them despite their fondness for each other. Distance. It was there in her relationship with Gwen Sihida too. Their relationship was de
fined—-and confined—by their po
sitions as judges.

With a growing sense of self-awareness, Dana realized that distance w
as the hallmark of all her rela
tionships—even with women. What was she afraid of? What would it be like to really have a best friend?

She glanced sideways at Rob and wondered if she could ever be friends with a man like him. Friends and lovers. The old phrase echoed through the corridors of her mind. He would never settle for being just friends. Friends and lovers. It was a scary thought and one that would take some getting used to.

"What are you thinking?
"
Rob asked.

"
Kapu
,
"
Dana said, unwilling to discuss what she'd really been thinking. "That's the sign on the gate that lets you into Kau Ranch. In ancient Hawaii it meant
forbidden.
Incest, adultery, theft were
kapu
—punishable by death on the spot. I
'
ve always felt the old meaning suited Big Daddy. Now I know I was right.
"

"You surprise me, Dana.
"
There was a low, husky pitch to his voice that sent a thrill of anticipation up her spine. "I
'
d never have guessed you were into Hawaiian lore. I can guarantee you won
'
t be hearing the night marchers tonight.
"

Dana knew what he was implying and ignored it. "Speaking of the night marchers, that
'
s Lillian Hur
ley's house over there.
"
She pointed to the modest home that bordered her driveway. "I guess her
daughter has arrived. That
'
s a strange car in her driveway.
"

Rob didn
'
t comment. Instead he gazed at her with a look so galvanizing
that it sent a tremor of excite
ment rippling through her. They
'
d agreed he would spend the night with her so he'd be certain to be there when Big Daddy showed up, but they
'
d never discussed sleeping arrangements. After the way she
'
d behaved at the beach, she knew what Rob expected, and she wasn
'
t sure she could say no.

Dana stopped at her front door and reached into the side pocket of her purse where she always kept her key. She unlocked the door; it swung open and they stepped inside. Her breath stalled in her throat.
Something was wrong.
She halted, her sixth sense telling her not to go any farther.

Rob bumped into her. "What
'
s the matter?
"

"The light in the hall is on a timer. It should be on.
"

"It burned out.
"

"Probably,
"
she agreed, reaching for the light switch. The house was stuffy, the way it usually was after being left closed all day. The feeling that something was wrong persisted despite Rob s
logical ex
planation. She flicked the light switch, once, twice. Nothing. "The power
'
s out.
"

"Could be a blown fuse. Where
'
s the fuse box?
"

"In the kitch—
"
An explosion of light blinded her.

"Don
'
t move,
brah,"
boomed a man
'
s voice from across the living room, "or we
'
ll shoot.
"

In the backwash of the high-beam flashlight,
Dana could see two men built like brick walls.
Mokes.
The island tough guys, who spoke pidgin, using words like
brah
for brother. They were responsible for much of the crime in Honolulu. She
'
d seen enough of them in court to know how vicious they could be.

She couldn
'
t make out their faces, but she did see the gleaming silver of a gun barrel. Rob's hand on the small of her back tensed. Her pulse thundered in her ears, making it impossible to think clearly, and droplets of sweat blossomed across the tops of her breasts.

"Hands in the air.
Hele on." Get moving.

"Do it.
"
Rob dropped his camera bag and the duffel with the videos.

Her purse hit the floor, and she reached high. What did they want? This didn
'
t have the earmarks of a simple robbery. They could have grabbed the TV and stereo and escaped out the back door when they heard them coming.

"Check the bags,
"
said the
moke,
and Dana had her answer. They wanted the incriminating videos. How could Big Daddy have gotten these thugs to help him so soon? They
'
d left Kau Ranch only a little over two hours ago.

One of the men crossed the room, a high-beam flashlight in one hand, while the other man kept the gun trained on them. He ignored Rob
'
s camera bag and grabbed the duffel with the videos.

Unzipping it, he said, "
Maika
'
i!" Beautiful.
He spoke a combination of pidgin and Hawaiian, his
breath so strong you could walk to the mainland on it.

As he sauntered back to the
moke
holding the gun, Dana glanced up at Rob. She
'
d never seen him look this disheartened.

The man with the gun grunted with satisfaction as he inspected the contents of the duffel. "Be sure they don
'
t have another one somewhere.
"

The other man lumbered over to them again and grabbed Dana
'
s purse. He dumped the contents on the floor. "Nuthin
'
.
"

He emptied Rob
'
s camera bag. The expensive Nikon hit the flo
or with a thump that sounded un
usually loud in the stillness. "Nuthin
'
here either.
"

"Okay.
"
The
moke
with the gun panned across the room with the flashl
ight. It settled on Dana, sweep
ing from her ankles to her eyebrows in slow motion. "Let's have some fun,
brah."

Bile shot up Dana
'
s throat as one man ambled toward them, his eyes on her. For a gut-wrenching second the world froze. Then she was thrown back in time. That night—so long ago—but never forgotten, returned with astonishing clarity.

She
'
d been helpless then too, she recalled, clenching her eyes shut, fighting an onslaught of terrifying memories. The young girl she
'
d been resurfaced, immobilized by fear. It was all she could do to force her eyes open.

Rob lunged forward. "Don
'
t touch her!
"

"
Careful,
"
she heard herself cry. The man had a
gun for God's sakes. But Rob didn
'
t listen, stepping between her and the burly
moke.

"
Take care of him first,
"
snarled the one with the gun.

Before his buddy could respond, Rob walloped him with a killer punch to the gut. The man
'
s eyeballs shot upward and vanished into the back of his skull, leaving the whites glaring at her as he sank to his knees, clutching his middle.